I am working in Bangalore and travelling through all of India from June - September 2010.

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Saturday, June 19, 2010

Delhi

Welcome to Delhi. If you have a car or a motor-bike then please remove all your rear mirrors. In India people do not look back. They are only moving forward with a fast pace while furiously honking at the same time. Arriving to Delhi was "quite" an experience. I arrived at the Delhi airport past midnight and because there are not many street lights only the next morning revealed the true face of the city: Crazy. Crowded. Hot. Dirty. Chaotic. But still very fascinating. Actually, I was scared to go out and walk on the streets the first day. Luckily my friend Raman helped me out and got me started.

Currently Delhi is one big construction site because of the upcoming Commonwealth Games in October. You will see traces of the construction work in almost all my Delhi photos. The belief is that by October the city should be a world class city. So all the homeless people are moved out of the downtown area, all illegally constructed buildings are destroyed, sewers are put into place and all streets seem to be renovated. The fascinating fact is that literally every street in Delhi is under construction. Inefficient workers seem to be available abundantly. People are very optimistic that all the construction will be completed by the time the games start (although it seems almost infeasible, but apparently Indians start to work quite efficiently if you give them deadlines).

The most definitely best thing I did in Delhi was the City Walk Tour guided by former street children. The tour is offered by the Salaam Baalak Trust and gives street children a platform to improve the English they learn in children homes and tourists have the opportunity to get to know the city from a whole new perspective.

That is it about Delhi. Stay tuned for my Rajasthan report and make sure you check out my Delhi photos.
Hotel recommendation in Delhi: Hotel Lal's Haveli.